Most children who follow a typical developmental timeline learn the grammatical categories of words in their native language by the time they enter school. Researchers have worked to provide a number of explicit, testable models or algorithms in an attempt to model this language development. These models or algorithms have met with some varying success in terms of determining grammatical word categories from the transcripts of adult input to children. A new model of grammatical category acquisition involving an application of evolutionary computing algorithms may provide further understanding in this area. This model implements aspects of evolutionary biology, such as variation, adaptive change, self-regulation, and inheritance. The current thesis applies this model to six English language corpora. The model created dictionaries based on the words in each corpus and matched the words with their grammatical tags. The dictionaries evolved over 5,000 generations. Four different mutation rates were used in creating offspring dictionaries. The accuracy achieved by the model in correctly matching words with tags reached 90%. Considering this success, further research involving an evolutionary model appears warranted.

Most typically developing children have achieved a knowledge of the grammatical categories of the words in their native language by school age. To model this achievement, researchers have developed a variety of explicit, testable models or algorithms which have had partial but promising success in extracting the grammatical word categories from the transcriptions of caregiver input to children. Additional insight into children's learning of the grammatical categories of words might be obtained from an application of evolutionary computing algorithms, which simulate principles of evolutionary biology such as variation, adaptive change, self-regulation, and inheritance. Thus far, however, this approach has only been applied to English language corpora. The current thesis applied such a model to corpora of language addressed to five Spanish-speaking children, whose ages ranged from 0;11 to 4;8 (years; months). The model evolved dictionaries which linked words to their grammatical tags and was run for 5000 cycles; four different rates of mutation of offspring dictionaries were assessed. The accuracy for coding the words in the corpora of language addressed to the children peaked at about 85%. Directions for further development and evaluation of the model and its application to Spanish language corpora are suggested.

Despite the documented need for reliable speech audiometry materials for measures such as speech recognition threshold and word recognition score, such recorded materials are not available in the Vietnamese language. The purpose of this study was to develop, digitally record, evaluate, and psychometrically equate a set of Vietnamese bisyllabic and monosyllabic word lists for use in the measurement of speech recognition and word recognition ability, respectively. To create the speech recognition threshold materials, common Vietnamese bisyllabic words were digitally recorded by male and female talkers of Vietnamese and presented for evaluation to 20 native speakers of Vietnamese with normal hearing. Based on listener response, a set of 48 bisyllabic words with relatively steep psychometric function slopes were selected and digitally adjusted to ensure equivalency for psychometric function slope and to equate threshold to the mean pure-tone average for the test participants. To create the word recognition materials, 250 words were digitally recorded by one male and one female talker of Vietnamese and presented to the listeners for evaluation. Based on listener response, 200 words were selected and divided into 4 lists of 50 monosyllabic words and 8 half-lists of 25 monosyllabic words. The lists were digitally adjusted to ensure intensity threshold equivalency. The resulting mean psychometric function slopes at 50% for the speech recognition threshold materials is 11.3%/dB for the male talker and 10.2%/dB for the female talker. Analysis of the word recognition materials indicates no significant difference between the lists or half-lists. The mean psychometric function slope at 50% for the monosyllabic lists and half-lists is 5.1%/dB for the male recordings and 5.2%/dB for the female recordings. The results of the current study are comparable to those found in other languages. Digital recordings of the bisyllabic and monosyllabic word lists are available on compact disc.

Purpose: The purpose of the study is to investigate and identify which factors using eWOM contribute to reduced returns in the purchase decision process. Theory: The study is based on theories that contain the purchase decision process, electronic word of mouth (eWOM), social media, positive and negative eWOM and the website´scredibility. Method: The study is based on a qualitative research approach where a convenience selectionis applied. Eight semi-structured interviews were conducted on both male and female online consumers. Conclusion: The study shows that respondents tend to spend more time and focus on the purchase decision process for online purchases from foreign e-commerce companies compared to Swedish e-commerce companies to avoid a costly and time-consuming return process. The respondents actively engage in the search for information before making anonline purchase to reduce the uncertainty about the quality and fit of the clothing products, which has proven to be the main reason for dissatisfaction and return after an online purchase. The study also shows that eWOM contributes to better purchasing decisions and reduced returns, partly because it helps to create a holistic view of the clothing products. The contributing factors to reduced returns are eWOM in the form of consumer reviews, consumer- images and videos that complement the available product information. Other contributing factors are the combination of positive and negative consumer reviews and the credibility of the website.

Strategic alliances have become a recognized strategy used by firms in the pursuit of their diverse organizational objectives. Consequently, the literature on alliances is replete with research investigating the value strategic alliances generate for participating organizations. Strategic alliances have been shown to contribute to firm value through numerous sources, including scale economies, effective risk management, cost efficient market entries, and learning from partners. Largely overlooked in the literature however, are issues investigating the relationship between strategic alliances and one of the organization's most important constituents, the consumer. Questions such as how the consumer reacts to inter-firm alliances, how strategic alliances impact consumer value, satisfaction, and customer post-purchase behavior have yet to be answered. This lacuna has been recently highlighted by prominent researchers in the discipline (Rindfleisch and Moorman 2003). Focusing on marketing alliances, the present dissertation attempts to address this gap in the alliance literature by advancing and testing a theoretical framework examining consumers' cognitive, affective, and behavioral reactions to organizational strategic alliances. The dissertation also contributes to the satisfaction literature. Scholars in this area have traditionally viewed satisfaction as a cognitive response to the comparison of actual consumption experiences with some comparison standard (confirmation/disconfirmation paradigm). Recently however, there have been increasing calls for satisfaction measures to capture not just how the customer thinks the product performed relative to the comparison standard, but also the resulting customer emotion. The study provides additional support of an affective route to customer satisfaction, particularly when customer hedonic value is enhanced. Moreover, the association between customer satisfaction and behavioral outcomes is also examined. While prior research shows that satisfaction is positively related to loyalty and word of mouth and negatively related to intentions to switch, it was found that these relationships are even stronger in the presence of alliances. The results of this dissertation provide important theoretical and managerial insights. The strategic alliance literature is enhanced insofar as this is the first effort aimed at investigating the impact of strategic alliances on the consumer. The study examines the relationship between marketing alliances and customer value, particularly utilitarian and hedonic value, as well as the moderating role of alliance type (functional or symbolic) in this relationship. From a managerial perspective, engaging in strategic alliances is strategically critical and costly. By providing insight into how alliances enhance consumer value, and how in turn value enhancement is related to customer satisfaction and behavioral outcomes, the present research will help managers make more appropriate and better-informed alliance decisions.

The intent of this concurrent mixed method study was to examine teacher perceptions and student applications of cognitive reading comprehension strategy use as applied to the reading and interpretation of a mathematics word problem. Teachers’ perceptions of the relevance and application of cognitive reading comprehension strategies to mathematics contexts were investigated through survey methods. Additionally, students’ cognitive strategy use was explored by eliciting verbalization of cognition using think aloud protocol and clinical interview probes with purposively selected first through sixth-grade students. An experimental component of this study involved the random assignment of teachers to a professional development book study focused on either a) instructional methods supportive of integrated cognitive strategy instruction in reading and mathematics (treatment group) or b) a review of cognitive strategy instruction in reading (control group). The results of this study indicate that the elementary student participants did not recognize the cognitive comprehension strategies that they were using during the initial reading of the mathematical text as relevant to mathematics based text, which is why initial patterns of strategy use were not sustained or renegotiated, but were instead replaced or extinguished without replacement upon identification of the text as mathematical. This may be due to a lack of: 1) domain-general instruction, 2) varied text examples in their schooling, and/or 3) conditional knowledge instruction for strategy use, effects that may be caused by the students’ teachers’ own domain-specific perceptions of cognitive strategy use at the elementary level. The teachers in the treatment group demonstrated greater awareness of the relevance of cognitive reading comprehension strategies for mathematics text than the control group; however, there was no evidence that this new awareness impacted their instruction in this study. Implications for iv professional development, integrated cognitive strategy instruction, and contributions to existing literature are discussed.

Dissertation (Ed.D.)--Boston University, 1970. / The purpose of this study was to determine whether or not semantic flexibility as a language characteristic of teachers in training could be used as a predictor of the teacher's ability to receive and transmit information. The Guilford Word Association Test, designed by J. P. Guilford to measure convergent and divergent thinking, was selected as the instrument for measuring semantic flexibility and was administered to 201 students enrolled in the block methods course at Boston University. The students were all juniors, scheduled to student teach the following semester. The Guilford Word Association Test was also administered to 154 sixth grade children enrolled in the Boston Public Schools in the South End and Roxbury and to 182 sixth grade children enrolled in the Newton Public Schools. The two groups of children were designated as the urban and suburban samples, respectively. From the populations tested four high Guilford teachers and four low Guilford teachers were selected. From each of the urban and suburban classes four high Guilford and four low Guilford children were selected. Each teacher had eight pupils assigned to her and for the purposes of data analysis, the children were categorized first as high and low Guilford scorers and then as urban or suburban children. In total there were eight teachers and sixty-four children in this experiment. [truncated]

Terrorism and conflict is ongoing, and in today’s world it appears to be increasing, however, numerous people have blamed the swell in violence on specific sources. In regards to September 11 and similar terrorist incidents, for example, it is quite easy for the media, as well as other sources, to place responsibility in the hands of a specific group or religion. In this case, Islam, Arabs or the Middle East region seems to be connected to these violent incidents. The reality of the situation may place responsibility in some sources within this region, however, an overgeneralization in regards to a diverse religion and culture may be occurring due to “overall, ideological judgments” by various entities including the news media. According to numerous perspectives, it has become possible for a few carefully chosen words within the media to trigger racially-driven prejudices and actions by agencies, institutions, and the public. Our language seems to be powerful enough to let a single phrase spin a news story into a national warning against a certain group. In other words, the power of association, in particular here between words and perceptions, allows the public to believe in their mind something that may or may not be true. In this case, various studies have shown the tendency for the public to associate Arabs with violence, particularly terrorism. The combination of negative media framing and common ethnic schemas of Arabs and Muslims have resulted in a long history of socialization and activation in the American and perhaps, wider culture. Therefore, this study will mainly focus on an assumed semantic implication of word associations in the media based on shared ideological and socially shared knowledge, rather than measure any explicit statements of racial and ethnic schemas. / Master of Arts

Given a group $\Gamma$ with presentation $\relgroup{\scr{\scr{A}}}{\scr{R}}$, a natural question, known as the word problem, is how does one decide whether or not two words in the free group, $F(\scr{\scr{A}})$, represent the same element in $\Gamma$. In this thesis, we study certain aspects of geometric group theory, especially ideas published by Gromov in the late 1980's. We show there exists a quasi-isometry between the group equipped with the word metric, and the space it acts on. Then, we develop the notion of a CAT(0) space and study groups which act properly and cocompactly by isometries on these spaces, such groups are known as CAT(0) groups. Furthermore, we show CAT(0) groups have a solvable word problem.

This research investigation examined the effects of GO Solve Word Problems math intervention on problem-solving skills of struggling 5th grade students. In a randomized controlled study, 16 5th grade students were given a 12-week intervention of GO Solve, a computer-based program designed to teach schema-based instruction strategies (SBI's) to solve math word problems and 16 control students continued with the standard school-based mathematics curriculum. A subset of items from the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS) as well as the Group Mathematics Assessment and Diagnostic Evaluation (GMADE) was used to measure student test performance. Examiner-made probes were given to both the treatment and control groups every other week to measure student progress. Results indicate that the mean difference scores of the experimental and control groups were statistically significant on a subtest of MCAS problems and a large effect size was reported. However, no statistically significant difference between the experimental and control groups was found on the on the Process and Application subtest of the GMADE. On examiner-made probes, there was a statistically significant difference between the experimental and control groups. Limitations of this study as well as implications for practice will be discussed.